ISSUE 381|COMPUTER SHOPPER (^201939)
THEGAËAŮŴAͶҊis afairly unassuming
handset by 2019 standards. As yet another
addition to Samsung’s mid-range Aseries, it
doesn’t exactly represent amasterpiece in
smartphone engineering, although it doesn’t
feel cheap,either,even compared to the £579
Galaxy A80 or £799 Galaxy S10 (Shopper379).
Constructed from a‘3D glasstic’ fusion of
metal and glass, the Galaxy A70’s subtly
curved sides fit well in the hand despiteits
large size.It’s also quiteslender,measuring
just 7.9mm, even though it has amassive
6.7in notched displayand stacked triple-
camera arrayonthe rear.
Mercifully,Samsung has decided to include
a3.5mm audio jack –aconnector that’s
missing on the more expensive Galaxy A80 –
which sits next to the Galaxy A70’s USB
Type-C charging port and solitary speaker
grille.Other practicalities include the
right-mounted volume rocker and power
buttons, with the dual-SIM traymaking an
appearance on the upper-leftedge.
NICETOUCH
Samsung has also squeezed in its excellent
in-displayfingerprint sensor tech, which
analyses the ridges of your thumb or finger
when placed on the bottom portion of the
display. This enabled us to unlock the Galaxy
A70 extremely quickly,aswell as fully wake
it when the screen was off.
The screen itself marks the debut of
Samsung’s ‘Infinity-U’ display, which mainly
just refers to the shape of the front camera
notch. Technically,it’s brilliant, and not just
because of the sharp
2,400x1,080 resolution.
The Natural profile
reaches 100% of the
sRGB colour gamut,
and –fittingly forthe
name –contrast is a
perfect infinity:1.
Brightness, too, peaks at a
gleaming 565cd/m2, which
is easily enough to deal
with direct sunlight.
Accuracy is also quite
good, with an average
delta-E of 2.2, although we
did notice some slight
oversaturation in light
and dark green tones.
Otherwise,it’s all
pleasingly vibrant, with
deep,inkyblacks.
SAMSUNG GalaxyA70
★★★★★
£369•www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Evenwithcompetitionfromwithin,the
GalaxyA70isSamsung’sbestmid-ranger
ANDROID 9.0 SMARTPHONE
Unusually fora
Samsung smartphone,
there’s no in-house
Exynos processor.Instead,
the Galaxy A70 is powered
by the 2GHz octa-core
Qualcomm Snapdragon
675, backed up by 6GB of
RAM. This combination
held up well in Geekbench
4, scoring 1,716 in the
single-core test and 5,554
in the multicore test,
beating both the Huawei
P30 Liteand the Google
Pixel 3a (Shopper378).
However,it’s also alittle
slower than its cheaper
sibling, the Galaxy A50,
probably because that
phone has an Exynos- This is also an octa-core chip,but can
hit faster boost clock speeds of 2.3GHz.
Still, the Galaxy A70 feels nippyand
responsive in everydayuse,and it’s also a
capable gaming phone,scoring 19fps in
the GFXBench Manhattan 3onscreen
benchmark and 20fps in the offscreen
benchmark. Of its closest peers, only the
Pixel 3a does significantly better,with 29fps
in the offscreen test.
LONG STORY
The Galaxy A70 has amuch bigger advantage
in its battery life. Equipped with amassive
4,500mAh capacity battery,itmanaged to
endure 25h 22m of
continuous video playback
–that’s the fourth-best
result we’ve had from
any smartphone,ever.
Aday-and-a-half of use
isn’t out of the question
here,and you might even
be able to squeeze out
two days of charge if
you’re slightly more
conservative with your
apps and picture-taking.
Speaking of which, the
rear camera array
comprises a32-megapixel
sensor,an8-megapixel
ultrawide sensor and a
5-megapixel depth sensor,
forapplying bokeh
effects to portrait shots.This tripled-up
arrangement isn’t
anything new by now,
but the image quality
that the Galaxy A70
can produce is nothing
short of exceptional.
The A70 manages to
give the Pixel 3a its
first proper run for
its money, capturing
outdoor shots with
extraordinary clarity and
detail. It’s not quiteso
great in low light, where
colours can appear dim
and washed out, but the
Galaxy A70 is still better
than most sub-£400
handsets in these
unfavourable conditions.
It also benefits from 4K resolution video
recording at 30fps, as well as Full HD capture
at up to 60fps. The ultrawide lens can also be
enabled when recording video,although
footage can only be captured at Full HD
resolution at 30fps in this mode.Generally
speaking, recorded videos look superb,
although the lack of any form of image
stabilisation at higher resolutions and
increased frame rates isn’t ideal.A-GAME
Having repeatedly navigated that dangerously
fine line between affordability and high-end
features, Samsung has stumbled on the right
ingredients with the Galaxy A70. It might lack
the fancy rotating selfie camera of its pricier
A80 counterpart, and it’s odd that the Exynos
9610 isn’t the processor of choice,but these
issues are easy to forget when you can get
high-end features and displayquality without
having to fork out aflagship-sized sum.
NathanSpendelowBatterylife
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
Seepage94forperformancedetailsPROCESSOROcta-core2GHzQualcommSnapdragon675•
SCREENSIZE6.7in•SCREENRESOLUTION2,400x1,080•
REARCAMERAS32megapixels,8megapixels,5megapixels•
STORAGE128GB•WIRELESSDATA4G•NFCYes•
DIMENSIONS164x77x7.9mm•WEIGHT183g•OPERATING
SYSTEMAndroid9.0•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILS
http://www.samsung.com•PARTCODESM-A705FZWUBTUSPECIFICATIONS
25h22m